Please note DPW crews have been out working to salt and now plow roads since about 4:30 this morning. All is proceeding smoothly at this time with no reported incidents or problems. We expect plowing to continue until the storm ends probably early this afternoon.Residents should be reminded that we do push snow to the curb as our priority is to clear the roadway of snow. And that they should be mindful of our operations as it may result in snow being redeposited into a driveway.As always we ask residents to stay off roads and not to block or park on the roads during the storm.Victor Carosi, Commissioner of Public Works

Sometimes....senior citizens/disabled residents contact me asking for help with snow removal. If you are willing to volunteer your time helping a family in need please e mail me at pfeiner@greenburghny.com. Please advise what neighborhoods you could help out in. If you don't want to volunteer but will assist only if you get paid, that info is also useful since some residents are willing to pay for the service. Our snow angel program is over 20 years old!

A few weeks ago I posted a suggestion that people purchase books for the library--helping the library with its budget problems. The Library Director had pointed out that it costs about $25 for a book. Some people wondered why books are so expensive. This is Genie Contrata's explanation.

I hope to see you at our meeting a week from Monday night at 8 PM. We are going to plan an aggressive effort to help the library with its fundraising initiatives.

Paul Feiner

As you state many books on Amazon.com are under $25. The Library buys from vendors approved by NYS and receives on average a 40% discount, however the Library buys books designed for libraries with library binding to withstand heavy use. These book are more expensive then what a consumer would buy from Amazon, but they also withstand use by dozens of individuals. In addition the Library buys books that are shelf ready for the Library, meaning they have a plastic book cover, property stamps, security strips, call number labels, location labels, etc. We call this processing and it adds to the cost of each title, about $1 per book. For the staff here to perform the same work would cost $6 to $7 per item for the salaries alone, not including the cost of supplies.

My statement of a book costing an average of $25 was not specific enough. I apologize for not explaining things in detail. Besides books the Library purchases CD Audio books, which can cost over $100 for unabridged versions, and the full-season of a TV series on DVD also can cost us over $50. And each of these items comes with processing which adds to the cost.

Sometimes items cost less than $25 sometimes they cost, the $25 was used as an average.